Choose a section

EVA President’s Message by Mary Szpur

You may think you know our neighborhood, but maybe you don’t. You may think becauseyou have visited the restaurants, bars, and boutique retail shops on our commercial streetsthat you know what East Village is like, but maybe you don’t, not really. This neighborhoodis more than a destination for drinking, eating, listening to contemporary music, or even goingto the theater. You may know just a segment of the place where you live. In fact, theplace where you live may be even more exotic than you think, but you may never see any of that.

Have you ever intersected in a meaningful way with the ethnic groups that used to comprise this neighborhood,and still do, to some extent: Puerto Rican, Ukrainian, Polish? Have you ever met or spoken with anyof the senior citizens of our community, people who may have some familiarity with what this neighborhoodonce was, and sometimes still is?

Recently I went to a concert of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus at the Chopin School onRice Street, west of Western. The auditorium was packed with people from our neighborhood.Being at this concert made me think how there are hidden communities withinneighborhoods, of which many residents are unaware. The Bandurist Chorus was on ashort tour of northeastern United States and Canada. The group often tours Europe. Itsmembers are of all ages, and come from all over the U.S. Half of them play the bandura,an instrument that has elements of the lute and the harp, and sounds a little like a harpsichord, and which isa national instrument of Ukraine. The concert was beautiful, moving. The audience clapped rhythmically. Ifelt a little bit like I was in Europe.

Sometimes it feels as though this neighborhood is hyped primarily for its proximity to downtown,its wonderful selection of restaurants, bars, clubs, and stores, as though that these elements arewhat define this collection of city blocks. To me, much more exists here. I hope you can seethat too.